Rudy's Top Cards from Ravinca Allegiance

Here we are again. You, loyal reader, have joined me once again to see what foolish cards I’ve spent my money on. In the past, I’ve had some solid hits and a few that have spiked really hard. There’s a few cards I’m going to brick on but that’s because I’m unlucky and not because I’m wrong.

Let’s dive in.

We’re Starting off the list with a banger in Domri, Bring the Ruckus. This planeswalker, as I wrote about last week, will make a great impact in Standard. Between helping you cast multiple spells in a turn and drawing you cards, Domri is going to make waves in the decks he is played in. Expect to see Domri in aggro Gruul decks and more midrangey styles with a bit of removal and heavy hitters like Carnage Tyrant and Hydroid Krasis. Domri’s plus also lets you cast any spell, so with cheap removal you’ll almost always be able to double spell in a turn which will help with some of the more aggressive decks.

Since this card was spoiled I was just imagining all the different decks you can fit it in. A couple weeks ago I shared a Golgari deck that tried to utilize Rix Maadi Reveler to clean up some of the weaker draws in the deck or fix the ‘wrong half’ deck problem. If you’re playing a Red deck, one of the downsides has been having to use your burn spells to keep the board clear or prevent yourself from dying and, thus, falling short of enough power to make any headway. With Rix you can ensure your land count is just right, and when you’re using Spectacle it will be a nice refuel. While certainly this card looks a little on the weaker side, it fills a nice role in any deck you can play it in. I don’t expect this card to make waves but it’s certainly a solid role player.

This card screams the second coming of Outpost Siege to me. Experimental Frenzy was already an extremely powerful card and this letting you have a second hand and being a touch cheaper makes this even more powerful. Being able to ping down planeswalkers or go after opponents life totals means even in flooded games you’ll always have something to do with your mana. Since the card isn’t Legendary there are no drawbacks to having multiple in play and it certainly feels like drawing cards. With plenty of burn there’s always a way to trigger Spectacle or Theater of Horrors and bury any opponent. The control decks were already having a bit of trouble with Red decks’ ability to grind and Theater of Horrors provides ways to win the game on multiple angles.

This is my favorite card in the set. It’s a little costly but the body is massive and when you’re flooding out this helps catch you up on life and cards. Combine this with Incubation Druid or even Domri, Chaos Bringer and there’s plenty of mana to shove into this. Since the effect happens when it’s cast even if your Krasis gets countered you’ll retain the life and cards and sometimes that’s all you need for another turn or two to make use out of your spells.

Lords in Standard are always a tricky thing to evaluate. Luckily Judith is so good that we don’t have to try hard to figure it out. Pumping the team plus being great against removal makes Judith a slam dunk in most decks you can play it in. With the Orzhov theme creating a swarm of creatures Judith can make blocking or wrathing an opponent a precarious position. The way Judith is designed makes triggering Spectacle easy which means we can fill our deck with burn spells and Spawn of Mayhem and keep the pressure on.

While this card feels like it has more Modern applications, having access to a card for Green decks that are good against Teferi decks will be nice. Imagine Nexus of Fate trying to combo off through Cindervines while you spent the first few turns applying pressure to their life total with creatures! Since it has a Naturalize ability tacked on it will be hard to lose to Wilderness Reclamation as well. Forcing your opponent to deal with the enchantment takes away from their game plan while you apply pressure on other avenues, making this a fantastic sideboard card.

Detention Sphere was always a fantastic card in previous Standard formats but Deputy is on another level. Being a creature means we can get aggressive with the Deputy. Clearing out blockers or removing a planeswalker from the fray or destroying all the Tokens makes this a great tempo play at all times or wonderfully defensive. I can imagine the White aggro decks splashing Blue for this card and giving a tool to new decks where removal is light or even lacking.

It’s been a LONG time since we’ve had a four-mana wrath available and Standard and while this comes at a huge cost to cast, the upside probably more than worth it. The way this Wrath is worded also indicates you may want this kind of card in your tokens style decks where you can gain value with Afterlife against some of the go wide or go big Green decks. Mostly, however, I think this is a card for Orzhov based control to have a cheap way to interact early enough.

Alright, this one is a little bit of a stretch but I don't think by much. Being able to draw three cards with a small upside of being able to Scry 3 is going to be a welcome addition for any and all control decks from here into the future. While this isn’t going to replace any of the four mana draw twos anytime soon, this will give a nice boon in an extra way to draw and bury the opponent in cards. Magic has moved to such a way that every deck has this built in card advantage and the only thing separating control decks is the ability to draw more cards. Perception helps us bury the opponent in cards and with a Teferi in play only costing three makes this exceptional .

The new coming of Hero's Downfall is definitely obvious in terms of power level. Costing a whole mana less than Vraska's Contempt is going to open more aggressively slanted Black decks and open up the Golgari decks to have a cheaper way to kill creatures and Planeswalkers with more opportunity to double spell on relevant turns.

This is my pick for one of the best cards in the set. Incubation Druid is fantastic at making sure your three color deck can hum and as far as mana dorks go this one is strong enough to hold its own, being able to don three counters and become a real threat. If you’re building any deck that has the ability to put counters on your creatures (say with Ajani or Rhythm) then it will be easy to make this Druid start doing work immediately. It makes having some nice payoffs like Hydroid Krasis very achievable goals.

These are the cards I’m leaning toward for relevance in Standard and cards I’m personally buying. What are you looking forward to?